The three main U.S. stock indexes closed at record highs on Thursday and Friday as optimism about the economy rose after President Donald Trump vowed to make a major tax announcement in the next few weeks. The S&P 500 has surged 8.3 percent since Trump's Nov. 8 election, fueled by expectations he will lower corporate taxes, reduce regulations and increase infrastructure spending. The rally had stalled amid concerns over Trump's protectionist stance and lack of clarity on policy reforms.

A Florida software engineer and a New Jersey pastor are expected on Monday to face trial in a case stemming from an investigation into a bitcoin exchange and a data breach at JPMorgan Chase & Co . Jury selection is set to begin in Manhattan federal court in the case of Yuri Lebedev, who authorities call the architect of bitcoin exchange Coin.mx's electronic platform, and Trevon Gross, a pastor and ex-chairman of a now-defunct credit union.

Amazon.com Inc forecast an unexpected dip in operating profit for the current quarter, sending shares down more than 4 percent due to concerns about the costs of investments including new warehouses and video content. The world's largest online retailer also reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue and missed Wall Street targets for its closely watched cloud computing unit. Key to its plan is to entice sign-ups for Amazon Prime, its $99-per-year shopping club, which has led to users buying more goods, more often.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The S&P 500 rose on Friday after major U.S. banks kicked off the fourth-quarter earnings season with strong results, making investors more confident about heady valuations after a recent market rally, while the Nasdaq closed at a record.

The European Union and the United States agreed on Friday to reduce legal and capital barriers to boost the $3 billion transatlantic insurance and reinsurance market. Under the deal, EU and U.S. authorities will lift requirements for reinsurers to hold more capital against risks if they operate from the other side of the Atlantic, eliminating one key hurdle for cross-border expansion. “This is a major deal that is set to benefit insurers, reinsurers and policy holders on both sides of the Atlantic,” said the EU financial services commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis.

Executives of big U.S. banks expressed optimism on Friday about the outlook for 2017 in their first public comments about quarterly earnings since the U.S. presidential election in November. Results at regional lender PNC Financial Services Group Inc were better than expected, with Chief Financial Officer Rob Reilly predicting the bank will be able to increase revenue faster than expenses this year. Shares of all four banks climbed Friday afternoon, with JPMorgan up 0.5 percent at $86.64, Bank of America up 0.4 percent at $23.01, Wells Fargo up 1.1 percent at $55.15 and PNC up 0.4 percent at $118.39.

President-elect Donald Trump will not revive his predecessor's stalled Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal in any form, but will quickly pursue bilateral trade agreements, a Trump transition policy adviser said. “TPP is dead. “TPP, or a multilateral agreement that looks like TPP but is called something else, is emphatically dead.” On Wednesday, Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said he was not opposed to President Barack Obama's 12-country Pacific Rim trade deal but shared some of Trump's views “on whether the agreement that was negotiated serves all of America's interests at best.” Speaking by phone late on Thursday, the Trump adviser said Tillerson was expressing some personal views on free trade theory.

Amazon.com Inc shipped 50 percent more items this holiday season than last for third-party vendors and doubled the amount for 2016 overall, the retail giant said on Wednesday. The news offers new data points for investors who are hoping Amazon will post a profit for the fourth quarter when it announces results in the coming weeks. Seattle-based Amazon, known for its roller coaster results in years past, has forecast that operating income would range from nothing to $1.25 billion.

In interviews over the past several weeks, half a dozen industry lobbyists said they began meeting with legislative staff after the U.S. election in November to discuss matters including a rollback of Volcker, part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform that Congress enacted after the financial crisis and bank bailouts. Lobbyists said they plan to present evidence to congressional leaders that the Volcker rule is actually bad for companies, investors and the U.S. economy.

BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wall Street lawyer Jay Clayton, who has worked on high-profile initial public offerings such as Alibaba Group, is a leading candidate to head the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the Trump administration, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. Clayton is a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell who specializes in public and private mergers and offerings, an area that requires expertise on complex securities regulations and corporate governance. Clayton was not available to comment.